Email fallout: 3 Democratic National Committee officials step down

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executive of the Democratic National Committee and two other top officials have resigned in the wake of an email hack that embarrassed the party on the eve of its presidential nominating convention.

CEO Amy Dacey, chief finance officer Brad Marshall and communications director Luis Miranda left their jobs on Tuesday, the party said in a statement.

The resignations are the latest fallout from the hacked emails, which exposed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with some party officials disparaging Sanders.

Marshall wrote the most explosive email, questioning Sanders’ Jewish faith and suggesting he could be portrayed as an atheist. He has apologized for the missive.

Earlier, party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned her position and, after being booed at a pre-convention appearance last week in Philadelphia, chose not to speak from the convention stage.

Longtime Democratic operative Donna Brazile is serving as the party’s interim chair. Brazile said Tuesday that she has created a “transition team” to help prepare the party for its post-election mission. She said Tom McMahon, a former DNC executive director under then-Chair Howard Dean, will lead that group.

Clinton operatives who moved over to party headquarters after she had effectively secured the nomination in June will continue in their roles; that group includes DNC chief of staff Brandon Davis. Additionally, veteran Democratic strategist Doug Thornell will serve as an interim senior adviser to the party.

Dacey already has a new job. She has been hired by Squared Communications, a Democratic consulting firm based in Washington.

“As one of the top campaign strategists in our party, and with our experiences together on presidential, Senate and congressional campaigns, Amy will help our firm’s clients navigate this and future election cycles,” Michael Meehan, founder and CEO Squared Communications, said in a statement.

Before joining the DNC, Dacey was executive director of EMILY’s List, which works to elect female Democrats.

The cache of more than 19,000 messages was made public by the group WikiLeaks just before the convention.

Democratic Party officials learned in late April that their systems had been attacked after they discovered malicious software on their computers. A cybersecurity firm they employed found traces of at least two sophisticated hacking groups on the Democrats’ network — both of which have ties to the Russian government.

Julie Bykowicz

JULIE PACE

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